Thursday afternoon the kids swam while Scott and I sat by the pool. I began going through my calendar for the upcoming week -- just trying to be mentally aware of what is going on during our last week of summer vacation and making sure that Scott is on the same page. I realized that we had nothing scheduled for Friday. And Saturday. Just saying it out loud gave me little butterflies of excitement - two whole days with nothing on the calendar? Yes!
Then Scott said, "You want to go to the beach?"
And 30 minutes later we had a hotel room booked in San Diego.
Spontaneity at it's finest.
We left Friday morning at 7:00am. En route we stopped at a sports supply store for a shade tent and two boogie boards.
About an hour away I finally narrowed down which beach we would visit after reading many reviews on Yelp.
12:30pm we pulled into the packed parking lot at La Jolla Shores and miracle of miracles . . . . we scored a parking spot! After reading many reviews that included parking horror stories we couldn't help but clap and cheer. This was the first great victory of our little trip and set the tone for a pretty amazing day.
It was a beautiful location. The water was so clear. And warm even!
The kids boogie boarded endlessly. You can walk out pretty far and the water is still shallow. Scott stationed himself way out in the surf to assist whoever was boarding at the time, giving them a big push to keep up with the wave.
On our last beach trip, Payton did not want to try boogie boarding at all. No matter how much we tried. And this trip started out the same way, although we didn't push the issue at all. He just waded in the water, played in the sand, and was pretty happy. While Scott, Conner, and Anna were out in the waves I invited Payton to come swim in the water with me. We walked out further and further, jumping with the waves. I could see him becoming more comfortable and enjoying it. Scott waved at me to bring Payton to him. Ooo {I cringed}, too soon. I knew he wasn't quite ready so I silently motioned back "5 minutes". Less than a minute later Payton said, "I want to try boogie-boarding!" Jackpot! Having him decide to do this completely on his own was the score of the day. Almost better than that amazing parking spot.
And he loved it.
We took a walk down to the pier. I loved the variations in water color from aqua to blue. And there's just something about a pier that is just so romantic.
Little blue jellyfish washed up on shore in the afternoon. I thought they were just beautiful.
And we're pretty sure that Payton spotted a leopard shark while wading in the shallows. I had read that leopard sharks frequent the shallows at this beach. But we made sure not to share that piece of info with the kids before we got in the water. Anna would be freaked out for sure. So on our family walk to the pier, wading in and out of the waves, Payton came running over, "I just saw a fish! It was this long [his hands stretched 2-3 feet apart], and it was black and grey and white all swirled & spotted together." Scott and I looked at each other with a silent, tight-lipped smile. "That's great Payton." And moving on . . .
Saturday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast in Coronado and headed to the beach.
The sand was amazing! White, fine, soft sand with glimmering specks that looked like gold in the water.
We arrived early enough (9:30am) that we snagged a parking spot right on Ocean Blvd with no problem.
There were seashells everywhere and Anna collected them all. She even scored several whole sand dollars!
We walked down to the rocks in front of the Hotel Del Coronado and explored when the tide was out. Crabs, sea anemones, clams . . . . I was climbing all over the rocks and I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed it more than the kids.
(I need to give a little shout out for Hapari board shorts! Love them! It doesn't hurt that I scored them on sale last week for $4.95.)
The boys built a sand castle named The Citadel and added a moat, a wall, and another trench to protect it against the incoming surf.
Anna was also proud of her kelp-adorned castle.
It was another beautiful day and we were sad to go but eventually we had to leave. At 1:30pm we packed up and made our way to the showers to clean up (as best we could) for the drive home.
It was a such a great trip. We packed little. We used Yelp alot. I only brought my iPhone for photos and decided that I was not going to worry about capturing it all. Just enjoy. (As you'll notice there are zero boogie boarding photos).
We came to San Diego and got exactly what we wanted . . . two beautiful days at the beach. And we went home happy.
La Jolla Shores
PRO: great boogie boarding waves, clear water, perfect water temperature (even warm in spots), plenty of lifeguards stations, bathrooms & showers, the pier (you can't walk on it, but it is pretty to walk under), leopard shark sightings
CONS: crowded (unless you walk way down to the pier), parking is nuts (unless you get lucky), leopard shark sightings
Coronado Beach
PRO: beautiful white sand, great sand for sandcastle building, sea shell collecting, tide pools, lifeguard stations, bathrooms & showers, beautiful Hotel Del Coronado backdrop, not as crowded
CONS: surf was a bit rough for boogie boarding, water was colder, sandier, and in the afternoon it was pretty sea-weedy
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Do you have a favorite San Diego area beach? We are just getting to know the area. I really enjoyed going to two beaches because they each had different things to offer. Together, they provided us a pretty well-rounded beach experience for the weekend.
